Mike's Books

The Last Card: Inside George W. Bush's Decision to Surge in Iraq by   Timothy Andrews Sayle   (Editor) , Jeffrey A Engel   (Editor), Hal Brands   (Editor), William Inboden   (Editor) 4 Stars The Last Card is an excellent, scholarly review of the Bush Administration’s decision to surge in Iraq in late 2006 – early 2007.   It is not a review of the surge itself, but rather of the decision-making process that led up to the surge.   Drawing on oral histories from most of the major participants as well as analysis from both critics and admirers, it presents a remarkably non-politicized review of the workings of the Bush Administration in making this critical decision.

A Good Man by   Ani Katz   3 Stars I struggled to really like A Good Man , but in the end it was just so dark that I couldn’t.   It’s a quick read and I thought the writing was excellent.   I didn’t find it all to be the “ slow, oppressive narrative ”  that at least one other reviewer describes; in fact, I moved through it very quickly.   But the story is just so dark and depressing that I couldn’t really love it.   There weren’t even any likeable characters in the book; they were all flawed and dysfunctional beyond any real hope for redemption.   Maybe the story just isn’t for me, but the 3 stars are for a well written book, I couldn’t rate the story itself that highly.

The Only Good Indians by   Stephen Graham Jones 4 Stars I agree with a lot of the things other reviewers have said about The Only Good Indians on Goodreads.   One noted that she “ struggled with the writing style [and] found it slow in parts ”.    I too struggled with the writing style at first, although I eventually did get used to it, and I also found the beginning of the book painfully slow, but it picked up steam quickly as it went on.  Another reader found the book “devastating, brutal, terrifying, yet warm and heartbreaking ,”  and it’s all of those things.  Another said that “the characters are memorable, interesting, flawed, funny—REAL ,”  and they are.   In short, I found The Only Good Indians to be very frustrating at the beginning, terrifying through the middle, and “warm and heartbreaking” at the end.   It’s a great story that would make a great movie, and I definitely want to read some of Stephen Graham Jones’ earlier works.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (The Hobbit) by   J.R.R. Tolkien 5 Stars It’s been many years since I first read The Hobbit, and why I waited so long to read it again is beyond me.   This is a truly magnificent work, and a pure joy to read.    Tolkien’s imagination is unequaled; he created an incredible world of strange and yet vividly described and easily visualized lands and creatures.   The story is actually a simple one, and that is, in fact, much of its appeal.   This is a timeless classic that everyone should read and enjoy (and more than once)!

Into the Night: Stories Between Darkness and Dawn by   Mark Tiro 4 Stars Into the Night is a collection of five great short stories right out of the twilight zone!   A ship loaded with Jewish refugees fleeing the holocaust arrives off a beach in Israel, in 1995; a rock star fresh out of rehab meets a strange woman in a bar late at night and finds that he’s met her once before many years ago; a frustrated writer pens a satiric look at how to become a dictator, and gives rise to one; a desperate priest creates an ocean of holy water with disastrous results; and a woman learns the truth about her husband’s death.   Rod Serling would have loved these stories!